A familiar riverside, farm pond, and lake bird; shy; quick to run or skitter across water into cover; may even dive and stay underwater with only bill-tip protruding. White flank stripe and patches under tail diagnostic.

Moorhens cannot survive in such scoured, open, bleak surroundings: they must have some dense vegetation cover. Yet they also feed out on open fields, often in pastures with horses or sheep, although always just a short, fast run from the nearest hedge. Sometimes they even nest in such elevated places. Moorhens are noisy, quite highly-strung birds, very likely to pick fights with intruders of their own kind, especially in spring. It is not easy to overlook them.